Logical Inquiry Exam 1

What are the value assumptions?

assumption regarding the authors relative importance of conflicting priorities.

What is an ambiguous term?

a word or phrase that is capable of being reasonably understood as having more than one plausible meaning even given context.

What are the descriptive assumptions?

an assumption of fact about the way the world was, is, or will be of states of affairs.

ex) i will study for my exam so that i will get a good grade.

Attention Fallacy

A fallacy is a reasoning “trick” that someone might use

while trying to persuade you to accept a conclusion.

Fallacy: Ad Hominem:

An attack on the person, rather than directly addressing the person’s reasons.

Fallacy: Narrative:

Assuming incorrectly that because we can tell a story that seems to explain the occurrence of a set of facts, we now understand the links relating the facts to one another.

Fallacy: Slippery Slope:

Making the assumption that a proposed step will set off an uncontrollable chain of undesirable events, when procedures exist to prevent such a chain of events.

Fallacy: Searching for Perfect Solution:

Falsely assuming that because part of a

problem remains after a solution is tried, the solution should not be adopted.

Fallacy: Appeal to Popularity (Ad Populum):

An attempt to justify a claim by appealing to sentiments that large groups of people have in common; falsely assumes that anything favored by a large group is desirable.

Fallacy: Appeal to Questionable Authority:

Supporting a conclusion by citing an authority who lacks special expertise on the issue at hand.

Fallacy: Appeal to Emotion:

The use of emotionally charged language to distract readers and listeners from relevant reasons and evidence. Common emotions appealed to are fear, hope, patriotism, pity, and sympathy.

Fallacy: Straw Person:

Distorting our opponent’s point of view so that it is easy to attack; thus we attack a point of view that does not truly exist.

Fallacy: Either-Or (or False Dilemma):

Assuming only two alternatives when there are more than two.

Fallacy: Explaining by Naming:

Falsely assuming that because you have provided a name for some event or behavior, you have also adequately explained the event.

Fallacy: The Planning Fallacy:

The tendency for people or organizations to underestimate how long they will need to complete a task, despite numerous prior experiences of having underestimated how long something would take to finish.

Fallacy: Glittering Generality:

The use of vague, emotionally appealing virtue words that dispose us to approve something without closely examining the reasons.

Fallacy: Red Herring:

An irrelevant topic is presented to divert attention from the original issue and help to win an argument by shifting attention away from the argument and to another issue. The fallacy sequence in this instance is as follows: (a) Topic A is being discussed; (b) Topic B is introduced as though it is relevant to topic A, but it is not; and (c) Topic A is abandoned.

Fallacy: Begging the Question:

An argument in which the conclusion is assumed in

the reasoning.

equivocation

when an argument relies on the shifting meaning of some key term to be convincing or to work at all